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Electric bike, stupid love of my life

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Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#161

Post by sleepybrett »

SmellTheGlove wrote: post #144
LoganDark wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only issue is how do you get rid of that ridiculous looking grin on your face. You just had a huge rush, got a bit of exercise, paid nothing for parking, eight pennies for 'gas', and beat all your co-workers who were stuck in traffic. The grin is real and not a good look professionally at the office when commuting. This is the most hilarious non-satire comment I've read in a while. The grin is indeed an issue

Ive been enjoying RTO because most of my commute is via the Elliott Bay Trail in Seattle. It really does put me in a different mood for the day.

I'm in ballard and my company has an office downtown. Two weeks back I needed to go in for a day as my home internet was down and decided to take my cargo ebike (it's been lovely out). I'm not sure I'd want to commute on a cargo bike every day, but it was a great ride, both ways, along the ship canal trail. (Little detour on the way home down to figurehead brewing to hit up the midnite ramen truck for dinner)

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#162

Post by SmellTheGlove »

mulmen wrote: post #130
Rnonymous wrote: post #5

Coincidentally, this past week, VanMoof, the X3 discussed in the article, closed all stores and are on the edge of bankruptcy, with a lot of media attention in the Netherlands. Beautiful smart bikes, but the quality of components is horrible.

Yeah very disappointing. I'm e-bike curious but they're all so _ugly_. Something with VanMoof style and a "dumb" drive system would be perfect. Give me a conventional derailleur-and-cassette in the back and an electric drive up front without screaming "this is an e-bike!" in my face and I would be the first in line.

I have a Rad City and I kinda like how stupid looking it is - especially the step through model, which I definitely have. But the nice part is that the bike components are all regular parts. Rad seems to be having serious issues as a company, which is a shame because for the price they’re good frames - but if they go under, it’s not like I relied on them for parts or service anyway.

Anyway digression aside, you might be happiest starting with a bike you like and doing your own conversion - either with a hub motor or a mid drive. Or have a look at REI - their ebike selection mostly look like bikes, with the advantage that they’ll also service them. That’s helpful if the manufacturer kicks it.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#163

Post by globular-toast »

rcpt wrote: post #126

Greatest thing about bikes, and this still applies to ebikes, is that you actually experience and participate in the city you live in. You learn the small roads, you see other people and they see you, you spot tiny businesses and interesting parks. I lived in Los Angeles without a car for a few years. I often met people who lived here much longer but knew almost nothing about the local area despite having intimate kn…

I know people who can't get around without a car with GPS navigation. They do not know the way to the shops or their friends' houses.

It's interesting to me that road rage is non-existent between cyclists and pedestrians. It seems to be a manifestation of the frustration of being reduced to a metal box with a monotone horn, a couple of lights and the ability to go forwards and backwards. On a bike you're still a person.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#164

Post by MrJohz »

karaterobot wrote: post #54
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #3

It amazes me how little attention e-bikes are given in terms of reducing traffic, pollution, CO2 etc. The BBC is especially bad at this - they promote lots of articles singing the praises of electric vehicles (i.e. cars) and almost never mention e-bikes as being far better for a lot of use cases. It also grinds my gears that there's tax breaks for getting e-cars and nothing for getting e-bikes. It's almost as if poli…

I love my e-bike (and feel like I have to point that out in threads like this), but while the use cases for them are many, they do not realistically replace ICE cars for most people. They just don't. People with families need cars, and would never forego owning one (or two, or even three) of them just because they have the option of riding electric bikes. That's why electric and hybrid electric cars remain a big deal…

Living in a city in Germany, a lot of families cycle with their children. Typically babies and young children have a seat on the handlebars or in a small trailer on the back, older children either have a tandem-style attachment or their own bike. The various attachments are typically fairly generic, so should work for both regular and electric bikes.

You can also buy (or rent) tricycle-style bikes that have a large space at the front to carry heavier loads - children, pets, or just shopping. I assume there are electric versions of these as well.

In fairness, most of this assumes that the city is reasonably bike accessible, mainly in terms of having all the necessary amenities within a cycle ride from home. If you live in suburbs, this may not be as possible. But I think that says more about the inadequacy of poorly planned cities than that of electric bikes.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#165

Post by sleepybrett »

rcpt wrote: post #112
somerandomqaguy wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology improved, but cars one main advantage. To steal a 4000lbs car one needs either a tow truck, or to enable the engine, or a lot of guys to push. To steal a 15 lbs bicycle, one need only pick it up and walk away.

E bikes are a lot heavier than 15 lbs

I am reminded of this reddit post and it's picture https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/13og4mc/thats_one_.... Most e-bikes have a lock on the battery that can be toggled to cut out the motor, though I think it can still be pedaled, but this is why you always lock through the frame and the the back wheel...

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#166

Post by MrJohz »

turdprincess wrote: post #142
karaterobot wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love my e-bike (and feel like I have to point that out in threads like this), but while the use cases for them are many, they do not realistically replace ICE cars for most people. They just don't. People with families need cars, and would never forego owning one (or two, or even three) of them just because they have the option of riding electric bikes. That's why electric and hybrid electric cars remain a big deal…

Replacing the car completely is unrealistic. Replacing a second car - totally possible. The folks who are buying electric cars are often buying it as a second car anyways since they still need the ICE car for bigger trips. Those folks could probably get by with one ICE car and a couple of e-bikes, which would be cheaper, healthier and more fun.

The other side of this is the potential for car-sharing, reducing the total number of cars around, but allowing people to still make more infrequent journeys by car when that's necessary (or just easier). If your bike is enough for all your regular weekly journeys, you can rent a car for holidays, or visiting friends and family further away.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#167

Post by nosefurhairdo »

aBioGuy wrote: post #152
bluescrn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless bike theft is solved, an e-bike will remain a toy for the weekends for most people. An expensive e-bike is a prime target to thieves. They require a secure indoor storage space at both ends of the any journey, and many potential users lack that, either at their workplace or their home (e.g living in an apartment only accessible via stairs)

Unpopular (?) opinion: don't worry about theft. If you are making developer-money then a $1000-$3000 bike is a trivial amount of money. Just use a cafe-lock with a sturdy chain and go about your life. It gets stolen? Buy a new one. Seems silly to be hesitant on a eBike because of a theoretical concern. Finding an environment where you are reasonably safe from getting murdered by a vehicle should be your primary conce…

The author of this post specifically recommends stretching your budget for the best possible e-bike. By definition, if one stretched their budget for a thing it is nontrivial to replace that thing. Also, people are not robots. Even if you can afford to replace a thing there remains a psychological toll from theft.

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#168

Post by bluGill »

somerandomqaguy wrote: post #87
blamazon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars once upon a time required a secure storage space for security. Technology improved, comprehensive insurance became a social norm, etc, and now you can just snug it against a curb, hop out of your car and press a button and generally not worry about theft, but if it does happen you're covered. Why can't e-bikes be this way? My answer: they can and are, just not all of them yet.

Technology improved, but cars one main advantage. To steal a 4000lbs car one needs either a tow truck, or to enable the engine, or a lot of guys to push. To steal a 15 lbs bicycle, one need only pick it up and walk away.

60 years ago it wasn't hard to hot wire a car. Car locks are very good, 20 years ago encryption was added so you can't start the car withour the authorized keys. Decades before that the lock was attached to the steering wheel so you couldn't drive even if you srarted.it. and car locks are hard to pick (unlike many house locks)

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#169

Post by sleepybrett »

SmellTheGlove wrote: post #162
mulmen wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah very disappointing. I'm e-bike curious but they're all so _ugly_. Something with VanMoof style and a "dumb" drive system would be perfect. Give me a conventional derailleur-and-cassette in the back and an electric drive up front without screaming "this is an e-bike!" in my face and I would be the first in line.

I have a Rad City and I kinda like how stupid looking it is - especially the step through model, which I definitely have. But the nice part is that the bike components are all regular parts. Rad seems to be having serious issues as a company, which is a shame because for the price they’re good frames - but if they go under, it’s not like I relied on them for parts or service anyway. Anyway digression aside, you might…

I have the rad-expand, which also looks 'stupid' but I love it anyways. But yeah it's great that they didn't go the way of vanmoof with an app required to unlock it etc. If they do in fact go under my only concern would be a replacement battery I guess? Or is that all standardized (it looks similar to the batteries on all the rent-to-ride e-bikes I see around).

Re: Electric bike, stupid love of my life

#170

Post by sleepybrett »

planb wrote: post #18
paulhart wrote: post #12

Pity about Van Moof though - and the owners if the cloud service disappears and they can’t ride their bikes any more. https://electrek.co/2023/07/12/dutch-e-bike-company-vanmoof-... [German]: https://zug.network/@moritzkraehe/110716829137328870

This is not true, even if it’s repeated a zillion times everywhere. As long as you don’t change your phone, smart unlock works without internet connection. And there is already third party software (which needs to connect to the Vanmoof servers once to save the key though). But you can always unlock by entering your code using the button. The real problem is that these bikes break every 20 km and there will be no par…

"As long as you don’t change your phone" being a requirement for continuing to use the bike I paid for is ludicrous. That said I saw this in an article just yesterday, maybe it solves the problem created by techbros wanting to build smart 'everythings': https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bikey-app/id6451117309
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